Negative Transfer in the Writing of Proficient Students of Russian: A Comparison of Heritage Language Learners and Second Language Learners

Case and Copular Sentences in Heritage Speakers of Russian

“…If this is indeed found to be the case, that would serve to show that case alternation in copular sentences is an area of difficulty for many heritage speakers, which can then be targeted for improvement in those who wish to develop their Russian language skills. Additionally, this paper contributes to the literature on heritage speakers as a whole, which is still a relatively new field of study, and where research focusing on high-proficiency heritage speakers in particular is still somewhat rare (Aleeva 2012, Peirce 2018). Finally, this question of the abilities of heritage speakers to alternate case based on semantic context can shed light on a wider area of their linguistic competencethat of semantic and pragmatic differences between certain types of constructions.…”